Jeff Sessions testified today before the Senate Intelligence committee where he was asked numerous questions pertaining to Russian election interference, as well as his own contact with Russian operatives during Trump’s campaign. He dodged most of the questions by basically saying that he can’t talk about conversations that he may or may not have had with the President, which is absolutely not true. In fact, Jeff Sessions could be held in Contempt of Congress for the obstructionist performance he put on today.

Jeff Sessions has denied having any inappropriate contact with the Russians, but as Seth Abramson has been pointing out for months, that is simply not true, or perhaps Sessions ‘doesn’t recall’ as he said no less than 20 times during his testimony.

Let’s take a step back to examine the Mayflower Hotel meeting that Sessions denies and/or says he doesn’t ‘recall’.

It all dates back to April 16th, 2016, just days before Donald Trump mathematically eliminated his GOP opponents for the Republican nomination. The high-level meeting took place at the Mayflower Hotel between Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, Trump Campaign Manager Paul Manafort, and future U.S Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Abramson points out something most people missed: The Mayflower has private rooms and areas of restricted access, which would allow Trump to hold a secret/private cocktail hour in the hotel’s VIP Senate Room.

10) The latter was important because Manafort wanted Trump to hold an intimate, 24-person cocktail hour in the Mayflower’s VIP Senate Room.

After selling Russia’s state oil company, Rosneft, Abramson alleges that Trump promised to lift U.S. sanctions against Russiain in exchange for a portion of the company. (Could this be a reason Trump doesn’t want his taxes released even for 2016?)

During Jeff Sessions’ public testimony, he briefly mentioned meeting with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at the 2016 Republican National Convention, but he has always asserted that his meeting was for Senate business purposes.

However, according to new reports, Sessions used his Senate reelection funds to cover the expenses for the meeting with Sergey Kislyak. This is a problem for Sessions because he claimed there was nothing inappropriate about the meeting as he was a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and the trip was not payed for with funds from that committee.

The Trump administration’s defense of Jeff Sessions hinges on the fact, they claim, he was acting as a then-U.S. senator when he talked to Russia’s ambassador at an event during last year’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Why then did Jeff Sessions pay for convention travel expenses out of political funds and why did he talk about Donald Trump’s campaign during the meeting?

According to the Wall Street Journal report, Sessions’ campaign account made two payments of $1,395 to a Cleveland hotel on July 16 of last year:

Campaign-finance-disclosure records show Mr. Sessions’ re-election campaign account was used for travel expenses in Cleveland at the same time the Republican National Convention was held in July, rather than using official funds that would pay for travel by him or other members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

On July 16, two days before the convention began, his campaign account made two payments of $1,395 to the Sheraton Cleveland Airport. A week later, the account made two payments to the Westin Hotel in Cleveland totaling $223. All payments were described as for “lodging.”